Today I share 5 ways you can use a hopscotch grid to support learning! (And if you do not have one painted in your playground it takes moments for children to draw one with chalk!)
Spelling
Pop your spelling pattern(s) into each box. It can be a whole word and the children need to use them in different sentences or just the pattern and the children need to think of a word. It is always helpful to get the children to write their words down and see how many they can come up with
Time
Write down different intervals and as the children land on them they need to say the time. Or, if you are practising adding/ subtracting intervals write down a range of times they need to add or subtract (say +75min, -1hr30min etc). Give the children a start time and let them get to work on playing the game and practising their skills. An empty number line might be handy for them to draw to work it out as well.
Emotions
Can you draw emoji faces into each square? Can children identify the emotion, can they say when they might feel that way, can they name other similar emotions? This is a simple activity to get children thinking about their feelings.
Modern Language
This can use the traditional hopscotch grid with numbers to practice their counting, or colours to be able to name them, or animals, or foods, or whatever you are practising at that time. It takes the learning outdoors and makes it fun.
Word Jail
Nice, good, walk, said… you know all those words we hate as teachers as they are used time and time again and there are far better words that can be used in their place? Pop them onto the hopscotch grid and when a child lands on it they need to give a suggestion of a word they can substitute it with. Again, you can always get the kids to make a list of all their words to create a class thesaurus!
How else can you use a hopscotch grid? Share your ideas here for others!
